Blend the butter, sugar and cardamon together in a food processor until you have a paste. Add the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt and pulse just until you have a dough. Tip the dough onto a big sheet of cling film then roll into a thick, short sausage of about 5cm diameter. Chill in the fridge for an hour until firm.

Preheat the oven to 170C/340F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Use a sharp knife to cut as many thin slices of the dough as you want to bake - they should be about 5mm thick. Place on the tray then bake for 7-8 minutes - the middle will have risen slightly. Leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. I bake them as I need them and keep the rest of the dough in the fridge (for a few days) or the freezer (for a few weeks). Eat on the day you bake them - they are at their best when just cooled.

I made a plum cake with cardamom yesterday (Amber Rose recipe from 'Love, Bake, Nourish' - very good) and am enjoying it so much that your biscuits have been added to my list as I can imagine the cardamom goes well with the dark chocolate.

Three of my favourite words! Actually you had me at cardamom. That would have been enough. The fact it is chocolate cookies is making me want to descend the stairs at this ungodly hour (4 am) and make a heady batch. Must. Show. Restraint.

It took me so long to try cardamom for fear that I wouldn't like it and last Christmas I bought a giant tub of ground cardamom from The Scandinavian Kitchen shop in London and haven't looked back. It's such a beautiful flavour and transforms whatever ingredient it's put with. I'm definitely going to give these a whirl.

I just picked up a new bag of cardamom (intended to be used with some of the first pears of the season that have just appeared at the market) and these cookies sound fantastic! I don't think I have come across a lot of recipes combining chocolate and cardamom but my favourite chocolate brand in Germany just brought out a Chocolate and Cardamom bar so it certainly sounds like a winning combination.

They're really useful, especially if whatever you're baking is light and won't hold the paper down - we had them as part of our equipment set at Cordon Bleu. Do let me know where you find them, I could do with some more.

Cardamon and pear sounds like a lovely combination. I hope you try it - they go really well together. All is well - just very busy and not feeling very inspired at the moment (I made these a few weeks ago). Thanks for asking :)

looks delicious. btw, i recently bumped into this food science video that says cookies develop their flavors especially if cookie doughs are left to hydrate via refrigerating them for ~48 hours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMvEZTeeBKU

Yes, that's true - I find it makes a lot of difference to chocolate chip cookies. As I mentioned in this recipe, I bake these in very small batches - say two - when I want to serve them. So the majority of the dough usually sits in the fridge or freezer for at least 24 hours.

I just made these and they are so very good! I love how the chocolate is really intense and they are not too sweet, and the cardamon adds such a sophisticated flavour. I'm confident that they will go down well with tea and coffee : )